Peer Review Week 2018: Diversity in Peer Review

Peer review week was jointly initiated by ORCID, Sense About Science, Wiley, and ScienceOpen in the year 2015 to underscore the importance of peer review in maintaining the overall quality of scientific publications. Following the success of this initiative, Peer Review Week is now an annual event. It is carried out to emphasize the importance of peer review in scholarly communication, showcase the work of editors and reviewers, share research, promote best practices, and keep researchers updated with the latest developments in the area of peer review. This year, the Peer Review Week is being celebrated held from September 10^th to15^th and the theme is “Diversity and Inclusion.” The aim is to highlight the wide range of issues and challenges that this topic presents and to promote diversity and inclusion within the scientific community especially amongst peer reviewers.

Recommended Reads

1. Ever wondered what researchers expect of the peer review process and if their experiences deliver on these expectations? Elaine Devine’s detailed report on the LSE Impact Blog will surely answer your burning questions with some strong data to back her findings.
2. Following Publons Global State of Peer Review report, both Nature and Science share detailed analysis on the various trends showcased by the global survey. Some notable trends like the underrepresentation of peer reviewers in developed nations clearly highlight the need for more diversity and inclusion within the peer review process.
3. As a journal editor, it is important to maintain a diverse pool of reviewers. Are you facing issues in increasing diversity and inclusion in peer review as an editor? This post provides journal editors with quick solutions on dealing with this issue.
4. The peer review process evaluates the quality of a manuscript before it is published thereby ensuring only sound science is made available to the research community. However, does it also become a blocker for more game-changing research? Don Braben and Rod Dowler share their opinions in a detailed article on the LSE Impact Blog.

Live Updates

Friday | September 14, 2018

1. In continuation to its Peer Review Week celebrations, ORCID will host its second webinar on the same topic at 9.00 – 10.00 am HK, 11.00 – 12.00 pm AEST. The webinar will be held by Jason Gush (New Zealand ORCID Consortium); Andrew Harrison (Publons); Kerry Kroffe (PLOS).
2. As a conclusion to the Peer Review Week, there will be a live Twitter discussion on “Addressing Implicit Bias in Peer Review: What Works” by Brooks Hanson, Executive Vice President for Science, American Geophysical Union (AGU). The discussion will cover gender bias in peer review, share some experiences and also look at a few recent studies. These discussions will encourage participants to ask live questions.

Thursday | September 13, 2018

1. Publons will be hosting a webinar on “Peer Reviewing with Confidence with the Publons Academy” at 9 am UTC and 4 pm UTC. The session will be conducted by Duncan Nicholas (DN Journal Publishing Services) and Julia Mouatt (Publons) and will cover 4 modules of Publons Academy mainly dealing with the peer review process, bias, conflict of interest, and review reports. In addition, attendees will also receive a special code for Publons Academy.
2. As part of the ALPSP conference, there will be a session on “Evolution of Peer Review” held by Elizabeth Moylan (Publisher, Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics, Wiley), Michael Willis (Senior Manager, Content Review, Wiley), Joanne Appleford-Cook, (Training Manager, Springer Nature) and Clare Hooper (Head of Journals, Liverpool University Press). The session will be from 11.35 am – 12.20 pm BST and will discuss the evolution of peer review, the explosion of research work needing peer review, and ways to increase the number of available reviewers through training and reviewer recognition.
3. Allen Press will be celebrating the Peer Review Week with a live webinar on “Diversity in Peer Review: A Conversation with Charles Fox” 12 pm – 1 pm CDT. The session will discuss the challenges and issues of diversity and inclusion in peer review and will examine how the increase of diversity in editorial boards affects the gender gap in peer review.

Wednesday | September 12, 2018

1. Publons, the global peer review platform will be celebrating its annual awards ceremony “Publons Global Peer Review Awards“. This event celebrates the top contributions of peer reviewers from across the world each year by honoring the critical role of peer reviewers in ensuring the quality and integrity of published research.
2. During its annual conference, ALPSP will be conducting a session on “Introduction to Diversity and Inclusivity Manifesto” at 17:30 – 18:00 BST (16:30 – 17:30 UTC). The event will provide an introduction to the main elements of the manifesto and will be conducted by Laura Cox (Ringgold), Phil Jones (Emerald Publishing), Nancy Roberts (Business Inclusivity), Phil Hurst (Royal Society), Alice Ellingham (Editorial Office Ltd), Nikul Patel (OUP).
3. As part of its celebrations during the Peer Review Week, Wiley will be hosting a webinar on “Why publish a Registered Report?” at 3.00 pm BST or 10.00am EST. The webinar will be conducted by Eric M. Prager (Editor in Chief, Journal of Neuroscience Research), Daryl O’Connor (Chair, British Psychological Society Research Board) and Nidhi Bansal (Editor-in-Chief, Cancer Reports) and discuss how Registered Reports reduce publication bias by increasing inclusivity in research and improving transparency and reproducibility.
4. Springer Nature will be organizing a live event on “What: Peer Review: Why You Should Get Involved – Talks and panel discussion on diversifying peer reviewer communities” at University College London from 15:00 – 17:00 BST. Held by Hugo Spiers (UCL), Dina Balabanova (LSHTM), Jessica Wade (Imperial College), Elisa De Ranieri (Nature journals), Luke Fleet (Nature), Ella Flemyng (BMC), the event will involve discussions with Nature Research and BMC journal editors on why they should get involved in peer reviewing and ways to improve diversity and inclusion in peer review.

Tuesday | September 11, 2018

1. The peer review platform Publons recently launched the largest study on peer review titled the “Global State of Peer Review”. The report consists of novel results of a survey from more than 11,000 researchers worldwide and also includes data from Publons, ScholarOne, and Web of Science.
2. CSE will be hosting a webinar on “The Peer Review Ecosystem: Where Does Diversity & Inclusion Fit In?” as part of its 2018 Webinar series. This session will be held at 10:00 – 11:30 EST (14:00 – 15:30 UTC). The webinar will be conducted by Brittany Swett (J&J Editorial), Ella Flemyng (BMC), Brooks Hansen (American Geophysical Union), Racquel Jemison (American Chemical Society) and will discuss the importance of diversity and inclusion. It will also cover the various practical approaches that others can use to help diversify their own peer reviewer communities.

Monday | September 10, 2018

1. Enago Academy will be hosting a webinar on “Why should you be a peer reviewer?” at 08:30 – 9:30 AM EDT (GMT-4:00) to commemorate the start of the Peer Review Week. This session will be conducted by Dr. Philip Lindeman (M.D., Ph.D.; Columbia University, USA) who will help attendees enhance their understanding about the intricacies of the peer review process and also explain why researchers should consider becoming peer reviewers.
2. In celebrations of Peer Review Week 2018, ORCID will be hosting two webinars with the aim of increasing peer review recognition and sharing some innovative ways its members use ORCID in peer review. The first webinar will be held at 10.30 – 11.30 am EDT, 3.30 – 4.30 BST and conducted by Joris van Rossum (Digital Science) and Brigitte Shull (Cambridge University Press) on the Blockchain for Peer Review Initiative; Liz Allen (F1000); Stephanie Dawson (ScienceOpen); Alice Meadows (ORCID).
3. Wellcome in partnership with F1000, are delighted to be kicking off the Peer Review Week with a panel event exploring this year’s theme of “Diversity and Inclusion in Peer Review“. The event will be held at the Wellcome HQ from 18:00 – 20:00 BST (17:00 – 18:00 UTC). The panel discussion will be Chaired by Jim Smith, Director of Science at Wellcome, who will be joined by panelists Jocalyn Clark, Executive Editor of Lancet, Kebede Deribe, Wellcome Intermediate Fellow in Public Health and Tropical Medicine at the University of Sussex and Sonia Gandhi, Wellcome Intermediate Clinical Fellow in Neurodegenerative Diseases at the Francis Crick Institute. The panel will discuss issues surrounding gender, underrepresented minorities, and country bias as well as more profession-specific issues such as the inclusion of early-career researchers in peer review and the gender gap in authorship.